He Partook of the Same

The law of the goel asks for sheer basar בָּשָׂר baw-sawr', flesh of the same flesh. The human race is one household, made from one blood. The One Jacob called goel stood outside that household; He had met Jacob in a form taken for a time. For Him to redeem as a kinsman, He had to enter it.

The letter to the Hebrews says that He did, and it says it in one sentence with two verbs.

Hebrews 2:14-15 Since therefore the children koinoneo κοινωνέω koy-no-neh'-o(share, partake) in sarx σάρξ sarx(flesh) and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same, so that through death He might nullify the one having the kratos κράτος krat'-os(dominion) of death — that is, the diabolos διάβολος dee-ab'-ol-os(devil, accuser, slanderer) — and deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

Two Verbs, One Object

The verse speaks of two parties and one thing they both came to share.

On one side are “the children.” They “koinoneo(share, partake) in sarx(flesh) and blood.” On the other side is “He Himself,” who “likewise partook of the same.” The object is the same on both sides: flesh and blood. The word “likewise” (paraplesios) says that He came to share in it as the children do, and the words “the same” (ton auton) say what He took: not something like flesh and blood, or a likeness of it, but the same flesh and blood.

But the two verbs are not in the same tense, and the difference carries the point of the verse.

The verb on the children’s side is kekoinoneken (κεκοινώνηκεν). It is a Greek perfect. The perfect speaks of something that happened and whose result still stands. The children came to share in flesh and blood, and that is still their condition. They did not choose it. They were born into it, and it remains what they are.

The verb on His side is meteschen (μετέσχεν). It is an aorist. The aorist takes an event as a whole, as something that happened at one point. He entered into flesh and blood at a particular time. Before that, He did not share in it; then He did.

The object is the same, and the way each came to have it is different. Two different verbs, and two different tenses. In translation the two are easily read as one and the same act; in the Greek it is plain: He entered at one point into a condition that is always ours.

What the Law Asked For

Leviticus 25:49 asked for a redeemer from “the kindred of his flesh (basar),” sheer basar, flesh of the same flesh. Hebrews answers that requirement in its own words, sarx and blood, flesh and blood.

That is not a loose echo. The requirement of the law is a requirement of kinship by blood, and Hebrews states that the One who redeems met it. He did not come near to the household of flesh and blood as a visitor. He took part in its flesh and its blood, “the same” as the children have.

Here the meeting at the Jabbok and the law of the goel can be set side by side. At the Jabbok the One who met Jacob was an ish, a man, in form. In Hebrews 2:14 the One who redeems shares in the same flesh and blood as the children. Chapter 11 drew the line between the two: an appearing is a form taken for a time, and the incarnation is human nature taken for ever. The law of the goel shows why that line matters. A form may meet a man, but only flesh of the same flesh may redeem him.

Without this, the substitution does not stand. If He had not truly shared the condition of the children, He could not stand in their place in the sense the law requires.

So That Through Death

The verse goes on to say why He shared in flesh and blood, and its purpose clause, “so that through death,” ties His taking flesh and blood to His dying. The children are flesh and blood, and flesh and blood dies. To die their death, He had to share their nature. The form in which He wrestled with Jacob could hold a man through a night, but Hebrews does not speak of a form; it speaks of flesh and blood, and of death.

The power of death had a holder, the diabolos, and Hebrews says that the holder is brought to nothing, and that this is done through death.

This one sentence already holds both conditions of the goel side by side. The first is kinship: He partook of the same flesh and blood as the children. The second is the cost: what He came to do was done “through death.” Kinship came first, so that the death would be a kinsman’s death. What that death amounted to as a price, Peter says in plain words.

Subject to Slavery

Then verse 15 says what this means for the children: He came to “deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”

The word slavery recalls Leviticus 25, where the hardest case for a goel was the brother who “is sold to a sojourner” and serves a stranger. The law said, “after he is sold, a redemption shall be to him.” Hebrews describes the children in a similar condition: held in slavery all their lives, and held there by the fear of death.

The goel who enters that household does not stay at a distance. He comes into the same flesh and blood, goes through death itself, and so brings to nothing the one who held death’s power. Those who were held are set free.

Why He Came This Way

Hebrews could have spoken of salvation in many ways. It chose to speak of children, of flesh and blood, of sharing “the same.” That choice fits exactly the law Jacob’s word grew into. A goel must be near, and near in the sense of blood. The One who stood outside the household entered it, not by appearing in it for a night, but by taking part in its flesh and blood.

The same chapter of Hebrews has more to say about this nearness. Before verse 14 it calls the children by another name, brothers, and says that He is not ashamed to use it (Hebrews 2:11). After verse 14 it says whom He came to help, and whom He did not (Hebrews 2:16).